Lorde Reinvents the Breakup Album on Melodrama

After Lorde released her debut album Pure Heroine in 2013, critics everywhere described her as an ingenue, a prodigy, a “promising poet,” and an “exciting contradiction.” If her new album Melodrama teaches us anything, it’s that Lorde is now a grown-ass woman — not an It Girl, or a teen sensation, or any other cliché about being wise beyond her years. She has evolved, she has lived, and she is reclaiming her sense of self. Melodrama parlays the aftermath of a breakup into anthems that seep with vulnerability, power, and the mourning that accompanies heartbreak. It also establishes Lorde as a sensational pop writer — and as an adult.

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Using a breakup as fuel for reinvention isn’t new, of course. From Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours to Taylor Swift’s Red to Adele’s 21, the end of a relationship often signals an upswing in artistic direction. Fleetwood Mac used their personal lives to create an album that embodies the emotional mania that defines infidelity, while Taylor used her A-list personal life to show listeners that heartache is a universal experience. Like Lorde’s, Adele’s sophomore record delivered the full spectrum of breakup-centric emotion: “Rolling in the Deep” is defined by its anger, “Someone Like You” hinges on sorrow, and “Set Fire to the Rain” merges sadness with spite. And while Beyoncé’s Lemonade isn’t technically a breakup album, it’s still a shining example of the emotional complications that accompany betrayal.

Unlike love songs, breakup songs are unique in their transparency. Heartbreak tends to bring out the best and worst in everybody, prompting behaviors we might not otherwise exhibit and decisions were might not otherwise make — creeping on Facebook, self-destructive partying, new haircuts, moving to a different city, etc. Think about Drake using the entirety of “Hotline Bling” to have a low-key temper tantrum over his ex moving on, or Carrie Underwood trashing a car in “Before He Cheats.” In Lorde’s case, she sings about cleaning up after a party and reconciling her new reality without the distraction of friends, drinks, and music. To anyone else, it’s a familiar post-soirée routine, but in her case, it’s the acknowledgement of a silent space in which she’s forced to revisit the “the glamour, the trauma, and the fucking melodrama.” It’s terrifying.

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Breakup songs are also the perfect way for an artist to demonstrate how multidimensional their writing can be. It’s easy to morph into a caricature after something in your love life goes terribly wrong, and easier still to issue standard sentiments like those heard on JoJo’s “Get Out (Leave)” or Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.” But when Lorde debuted “Green Light” back in the spring, she pushed beyond the standard breakup formulas to deliver a song that was determined and angry, but also a deeper examination of her inner self. The failed romance was less a focus than her own post-breakup behavior, and the video acknowledged the gong show that is partying to drown out happy memories. She could have gone with a sentiment like “you hurt me, and I hate you,” but instead she used the end of a relationship to explore the complications and complexities that come with growing up.

No single song on Melodrama can be easily categorized by a single emotion. “Writer in the Dark” includes the eternally perfect and vengeful line, “Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark,” but then goes on to celebrate Lorde as an individual — a woman who taps into her “secret power” after an initial period of mourning has passed. Album closer “Perfect Places” acknowledges memories of coupledom before morphing into a celebration of youth and life and the messiness that comes with both. Then there’s “Hard Feelings/Loveless,” a lyrical exercise in looking at an ex from the outside that contains the incredible line, “I care for myself the way I used to care about you.” So while Melodrama is undoubtedly a breakup album, it is as much about Lorde breaking up with who she used to be as it is about her breaking up with another person, and that’s what makes records like these as important as they are memorable. Yes, breakup albums make artists seem human like the rest of us, but the ones that resonate deepest are the ones that treat these moments as a gateway to something bigger.

Pure Heroine connoted that Lorde has always been an old soul, and with Melodrama, her ability to look inward as much as she looks at the ex who hurt her is another testament to her self-awareness. The greatest breakup albums are never a one-way shouting match; they’re a reexamination of the past and an acknowledgement of the path that led artists to where they are now. Now Lorde is at the top of her game, having shown that she’s capable of the reflection, emotional depth, and power that define the pop stars we never stop caring about. The breakup was just a stepping stone to getting there.

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